Hey everyone! I'm looking to build a gaming PC for my daughter, who's really into games like Minecraft (with mods and shaders), Roblox, and The Sims, plus a few others she's found on Steam. Her current setup is a pretty old used laptop that keeps giving her trouble, so I want to get her something new. I already have a GTX 1660 Super GPU to use, and I'm trying to decide between the Ryzen 5 5500 and the Intel Core i3 12100F to go with it. There's just a dollar difference in price—the i3 is $74 and the Ryzen is $75. I've seen some benchmarks showing the 12100F performing slightly better, while others favor the 5500. Based on her gaming needs, which CPU do you think would perform best? I plan to buy the motherboard this week, so any insights would be super helpful! Thanks!
3 Answers
I would lean towards the Intel i3 12100F, but you really need to think about the overall platform cost. If you're going for a basic motherboard, be cautious of bad power delivery on cheap models. A solid motherboard for the i3 is more expensive, while you can find decent AM4 boards for less. In the long run, if you want to preserve upgrade flexibility, the Ryzen might save you more in the near future with its compatible prices.
I'd recommend the Ryzen 5 5500. It gives you more upgrade options for the future compared to the 12100F. The 5500 is part of the AM4 platform, which means you can still upgrade to higher-end CPUs later. The 12100F is on the LGA 1700 platform, but there are some constraints as the AM4 will be usable a bit longer.
True, but it’s also interesting how Intel is offering a better upgrade path in certain contexts. I think the i3 12100F might also be easier to find a decent motherboard for, but ultimately, for raw gaming, the 5500 leaves room for better options down the line.
The i3 12100F is slightly faster in most scenarios and the Ryzen 5 5500 has more cores. Depending on the games, if some are single-threaded, the i3 might be better, but for games utilizing more cores like Minecraft, the Ryzen could perform better in those cases. If she's mainly playing Minecraft and Roblox, the extra cores might help with the mods and shaders.
Yeah, with her focus on Minecraft especially, I think having more cores might be a big plus. The i3 could shine in games using less than 4 cores though, so it’s a healthy debate!
That’s good to know! I'm actually looking at solid boards regardless because I don’t want to deal with cheap options, plus I want something that can handle future upgrades down the line. So for stability and longevity, would you still favor the i3?